The new update includes:

• 5 new Swords, 5 new Shields, 5 new Helmets, and 1 new set of Armor
• Maximum Character Level raised from 40 to 45
• The new Marrow Fiend enemy, rumored to devour its victims, taking their bones for its blade and shield
• You can now listen to your own music while playing
• The ability to buy extra gold via in-app purchases
• Optimizations and minor Bug fixes

Let’s take this point by point. The new weapons and armor are just what they sound like: new weapons and armor. They’re not particularly mind-blowing one-shotting swords or ultimate armor pieces of any kind. In fact, they’re not even the strongest in the game from what I can tell. They are mixed in with the rest of the inventory in the Store, and seem mainly to bridge the gap between expensive meh weaponry and armor and expensive awesome ones. Included is a “Holiday Helmet”, which looks like a steam-punk Santa Claus metal face mask. It’s delightful and creepy at once, but odds are what you currently have equipped is more useful.

A level cap increase is always welcomed in any game, and though I have not yet reached the first cap, first-week obsessors will be happy to know they can continue to level up.

The high-level Marrow Fiend is a rare spawn that appears in various locations. Some have spotted him on the stairs, others have encountered him as their first opponent at the start of a Bloodline.

I have to say, however, I’m not sold on the listen-to-your-own-music schtick. I loaded my game and pressed play on my headphones remote and it worked well at first, but quickly faltered. I played a podcast I wasn’t finished listening to and had my warrior walk across the bridge to the castle, but as soon as a fight started my music switched off and the battle music faded in. I wasn’t sure if I’d hit something or if it was a glitch, so I pressed play on my headphones remote again and had my podcast fade back in. The sound effects were significantly duller - in fact, I wasn’t immediately sure they were even there until I heard the faint clang of metal. Then I paused the game for a moment and my podcast faded out and the game’s music faded in again. I “arghed” a silent argh.

In-app gold purchasing in games has always seemed like cheating to me, but for those who have spare money but no spare time to work on their character, you can buy thousands of gold of a few dollars at a time, tied whatever credit card that’s attached to your iTunes account.

As far as bug fixes go, in the launch version I had a sound effects glitch when trying to resume play after receiving a phone call (in that there were none), though I haven’t had the chance to test whether it’s still an issue. But whatever the fixes have solved, their update itself has its own bugs, because there will come a time when I want to listen to my own music or a podcast without it randomly pausing. Perhaps there will be a soon-to-come minor update to fix that? I hope so. Overall the game doesn’t feel much different. Hopefully next year’s addition of the dungeons and a multiplayer sysetm will refresh the game.